World News by Wild Rose

The risk of a conflict over Taiwan is shaping Japanese defence planning, with Tokyo shoring up security at home and abroad for a potentially prolonged fight. But there are economic, demographic and political constraints on how far its military transformation can go. In the third of a three-part series, Gabriel Dominguez examines the various challenges confronting Japan in its bid to expand its military. Driven by the growing risk that a conflict over Taiwan could draw Tokyo into a high-intensity...

By 2045, Japan’s Self-Defence Forces (SDF) could shrink to 130,000 personnel – nearly half today’s strength. But Tokyo has already ruled out one think tank’s controversial fix: recruiting foreign nationals. The proposal formed part of a report written by a panel of senior former defence bureaucrats and military chiefs, released by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation on September 2. It attracted widespread comment, both supportive and critical, before Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi made the...

The risk of a conflict over Taiwan is shaping Japanese defence planning, with Tokyo shoring up security at home and abroad for a potentially prolonged fight. But there are economic, demographic and political constraints on how far its military transformation can go. In the second of a three-part series, Gabriel Dominguez examines how Tokyo is building military resilience within its territory. Japan’s recent purchase of a former Nippon Steel site to build a sprawling new defence hub points to a...

Tokyo, Sept. 8 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on Tuesday strongly urged Iran to exercise maximum restraint over attacks on civilian vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint for crude oil shipments. During phone talks with his Iranian counterpart, Seyyed Abbas Araghchi, Motegi expressed his concern about the continuing attacks on civilian ship...

Chinese cities must brace for a potential nuclear attack, a new study has warned, singling out Japan for “sending a major danger signal” to the world. The report, from a People’s Liberation Army medical team, said the likelihood of a large-scale global nuclear war was relatively low. “However, the possibility cannot be ruled out that small or medium-sized nuclear-armed or potentially nuclear-armed states, driven by geopolitical or religious conflicts, could carry out a single nuclear-weapon...

Tokyo, Sept. 7 (Jiji Press)--Japan, the United States and South Korea kicked off their Freedom Edge 2026 joint military exercise on Monday with an opening ceremony at the U.S. Air Force's Yokota Air Base in Tokyo. This year's exercise, the fourth of its kind and the first since last September, is apparently intended to demonstrate trilateral cooperation amid concerns over North Korea and Ch...

Japan’s Mogami-class warship is turning out to be a hot item among global navies. Australia is buying 11, New Zealand is considering putting in an order – and now, even the United States is showing interest. According to a US Naval Institute report published on Tuesday, government and naval planners are looking at three possibilities: Japan’s Mogami-class frigates, South Korea’s Chungnam guided-missile frigate and Turkey’s Istanbul-class warship. This is the first time since World War II that a...

Washington is considering using Japanese, South Korean or Turkish frigate designs to expand the country’s naval fleet as the American shipbuilding industry struggles to meet demand, according to US media reports. The move comes after President Donald Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum on August 13 calling for the use of foreign shipbuilding capacity and investment. However, the plan is likely to face strong opposition in Congress. Potential contenders for the US Navy’s new...

Japan’s plans to transfer ageing warships to the Philippines and Indonesia could turn older military hardware into geopolitical leverage, deepening regional security ties while helping Tokyo counterbalance Beijing’s growing influence, observers say. Such transfers, they said, fit into Tokyo’s broader security assistance toolkit to strengthen partners’ capabilities and forge longer-term defence relationships through equipment, training, maintenance and interoperability – expanding Japan’s...